Glenn Beck Loses Advertisers After Calling Obama Racist

Geico and Lawyers.com (which is owned by Lexis Nexis) have both pulled advertising from Beck's show, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Geico is one of the country's largest advertisers, spending more than a quarter-billion dollars for the first half of 2009, according to Nielsen Co.

Fox noted that the cable networks will not lose revenue, as the companies are simply shifting their ads to other programs. Additionally, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance and SC Johnson said their ads were never supposed to run during Beck's program and the mistake would be corrected.

The controversy stems from a July 28 broadcast when Beck called Obama a racist with "a deep-seated hatred for white people." The comments led companies to "avoid programming that we believe our customers and potential customers might find extremely offensive," a Progressive rep told THR.